FRIDAY PUZZLE — What a nice surprise! I met Wyna Liu on the 2017 Times Journeys crossword crossing (I’m still not allowed to call it a cruise), and she was a delightful addition to the group. Now here she is, making her crossword debut in The New York Times. On a Friday, yet. I’m really impressed.

The puzzle is even more impressive. As Ms. Liu says below, the grid is a bit sectioned off by the diagonal black square design, but she makes up for it by packing her grid with some gorgeous fill. CATFISHES, ONION TART, OOPS SORRY, the fabulous book series and film CRAZY RICH ASIANS, ALL PROS, the much-missed GWEN IFILL, FOSSILIZE and INSANELY all make their New York Times Crossword debuts today. Some entries, like WIN AT LIFE and BROTOX have only been used once and still feel very fresh.

Congratulations, Ms. Liu. This was a terrific start, and I hope it’s the beginning of a beautiful series of puzzles from you.

Tricky Clues

1A: If you have ever used a dating website and have been flirted with by someone who seems too good to be true, you’ve been the victim of attempted CATFISHing (the entry is CATFISHES).

15A: Onions were the first thing that popped into my brain after reading the clue “Savory treat that is often caramelized,” [cooking pedant alert] although to be honest, the whole point of caramelizing onions — which are savory in their uncooked state — is to bring out the sugar in them and make them sweet. However, I will let that slide because onion tarts, sometimes known as pissaladières, are delicious. Make one and see for yourself.

21A: The only reason I knew what SPLINES were is because when I was newly single and my house decided to fall apart, I had to replace the tattered screens in my back door. This required a trip to the hardware store where, under the tutelage of a young man who I believe mostly felt sorry for me, I learned to cut screens and attach them to the window frame channels using SPLINES. And they say that real life doesn’t prepare you for solving crossword puzzles.

27A: With that question mark, you know that “Relief pitcher?” is not going to have anything to do with baseball. The key word here is “Relief” referring to pain, and one company who pitches that relief in its advertising is the maker of ADVIL.

54A: Very touching to see the late journalist GWEN IFILL make her full name debut in The New York Times Crossword.

24D: WUSHU is the name for the collective Chinese martial arts, better known as kung fu.

31D/32D: To dupe or not to dupe? The cross-referenced clue was a nice way to save the very common entries, T-NUTS and T-SLOT, right next to each other.

Constructor Notes

This is the first puzzle I’ve constructed and I’m thrilled to be making my New York Times debut.

The seed entry for this puzzle was 33-Across CRAZY RICH ASIANS, followed by 1-Across CATFISHES, a shout-out to Henry Joost and Supermarché, who made “Catfish.”

I wanted to clue 41-Across ALL PROS as “Like Newton and Watt,” but WATT was already in the grid and I couldn’t figure out how to replace it. Fill-wise, I’m least happy with WOODMEN, T-NUTS, and T-SLOT, particularly since they sit so close together in the grid. My favorites are the multiword answers OOPS SORRY, WIN AT LIFE and SLEEP EASY.

I’m very grateful to Erik Agard for inspiring me to start constructing and for being a fantastic mentor. He did warn me about the dicey black square configuration that almost trisects the grid, exactly the feedback I got from the editors. A near deal-breaker — thank you, editors, for letting it slide!

I’ve been a crossword enthusiast for about 10 years. Between solving puzzles, I spend my time making jewelry and magnetic objects, teaching yoga and bothering my dog. I hope to keep the puzzles coming!

The Tipping Point

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